A Horse in the Race
by The Blue Footed Booby
Summary: The Bird of Time part five: "All these alternate realities I've been shuffling through, Hermes, it's like a radio changing channels, but I've finally locked on to a strong signal. I'm in touch with something. This is way too elaborate for a hallucination. I'm afraid of never coming back, I don't wanna get stuck out there. This time I wasn't even human!"
1. Chapter 1

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* * *

_**String Theory  
**_

_**\- A Horse in the Race**_

* * *

The Traveler awoke with the morning sun burning across her side. She'd overslept. She really was getting old. _That, and a hard life of roughhousing's finally taking its toll,_ she thought to herself.

She felt better though, after a night's sleep. Yesterday's long journey had left even her sore and cranky. But only an hour more and she'd be in sight of the castle.

She climbed to her feet, and smacked her lips. _Thirsty._ She walked down to the river and slurped up her fill. Then she dove in. She'd be returning to civilization today, and should make an effort to look decent, for once.

After her bath, she shook off the water, draped her packs over her back, and started walking, just because she enjoyed it.

Sure enough, within the hour the Traveler saw the white towers, colorful pennants flying, carved from the very crest of the mountain. Despite all the remarkable sights she'd beheld in her busy lifetime, the capitol still made her smile, dreary and self-important as its social-climber inhabitants were.

She would never understand those who measured their worth by the accolades of others. She herself gave, with very rare exception, little thought to others, and expected they felt much the same about her.

True, the journals she kept had been transformed, with a little ghost-writing and some mild exaggeration, into lucrative books, which had given her the means to continue her work. They had also given her a bit of useful, if unwanted, notoriety. But what of that? Simple disguises warded off the unwanted attention. Usually.

She moseyed over to the little whistle-stop where the train loaded up on water and coal before the arduous climb. She didn't see many passengers today. She was able to produce enough from her bag, in the relevant currency even, to buy a ticket.

Her course wasn't up the hill, but the return trip southwest through the little agrarian town. Her destination, and her quarry, waited there.

She arrived by lunchtime. Ravenous, she treated herself to a fine meal from a small café, and smiled at the waiter's transparent attempt to look like he came from somewhere more cosmopolitan. She'd visited many such cosmopolitan places, but she'd grown up in a dinky town much like this. She liked quiet little villages more than grimy, perpetually noisy cities. The bakery next door to the restaurant, absurdly painted like a pastry itself, smelled heavenly. But at her age, she needed to mind her diet, and her doctor's orders.

_Where to go to find my target?_ She strolled aimlessly for a while, nodding to the townsfolk. Never hurt to be mannerly, though she balked at the thought of actually saying "hello." She had family here, or so she understood. _Don't care much for the idea of looking 'em up, but if nothing else presents itself..._

The stylized sign of a candle caught her eye. It was a variation, she knew, of the "torch of knowledge," a symbol universal to every culture she'd visited, at least above water. _A library. Perfect!_ And the top half of the double-hung door was open, inviting visitors.

She dusted any last trail dust off, and cleaned her shoes on the threshold mat between the flowerbeds.

One polite knock later, the lower half of the door opened. "Hi, and welcome," a voice said. It took a moment for her to look down and see the little fellow. They gave each other the once-over.

"Haven't seen you around before, stranger. What sort of books are you looking for? Atlases? Or perhaps travelogues."

"Actually I'm looking for..." her voice trailed off and she blinked, taken aback. "You're a dragon."

"And you're very observant," the scaly little monster replied amiably, and with the perfect, casual enunciation of a native speaker.

_Who'd dared to acquire a dragon's egg, and raise this creature from birth?_ She briefly wondered whether it was a genius who would have a loyal, formidable adolescent dragon to watch over her sunset years, or a lunatic who'd be torn to shreds once this specimen reached any size.

She didn't think highly of dragons. She'd spoken to more than one, and while she empathized with their reclusion, they were coarse, self-absorbed narcissists at best, and greedy, foul-tempered bullies at worst.

"A book about dragons, then?" The reptile continued. "We recently acquired some. I can personally recommend _The Descent of Dragons. _Or maybe something more general? _Lithovore Legacy_?"

"I'm not looking for a dragon, or a book, although a copy of the _Historia Hyracotherium_ would be helpful, and an atlas with the northern border of the Everfree."

"Hello down there," a voice called from upstairs, promptly followed by the librarian. She was small-framed and painfully young. But her diction and shining eyes made both her inborn intelligence and her guilelessness obvious. "A fellow antiquarian? I'd just about given up hope."

"You've read it, then?" the traveler asked. She noted that her most recent disguise held; the librarian didn't recognize her, though they'd met once before.

However, as the visitor passed the tiny dragon, both traveler and librarian missed his bulging, staring eyes, and his subsequent abrupt, silent departure.

"Don't sound so surprised," the librarian answered, slightly miffed. In a flash, she'd retrieved a copy of the massive _Hyracotherium. _"It's one of the greatest works of mythology ever! I devoured it years ago," she concluded, a little smugly.

"Oh, really?" the Traveler smiled. She simply couldn't resist - in this backwater, who else might she enlist in her cause if not this excitable young historian? "'Mythology,' eh? Then you remember chapter twelve?"

"Uhm..." the librarian's eyes rolled back as she fought to recall.

"Sunshower?" the visitor nudged helpfully.

"Oh yes! The legendary race over the forest to warn queen Sunshower about the infiltrator."

"Which happens to be the source of the 'old mare's tale.'"

The librarian blinked.

"Oh, enough hints! Where can I find Rainbow Dash?"

"Uhnm... out rangling the clouds. There's a shower scheduled for tonight - wait a minute!" The alicorn halted in her tracks, wings spread, and hooves planted as if braced for impact. "You think the explosion in the book... you think that was a sonic rainboom!"

It wasn't a question, the traveler observed with fresh approval.

"The first one, yes. Miss Dash proved the rainboom is not a myth. I wouldn't be surprised if she's even of Stormblue's lineage. I should research her pedigree, might make an interesting footnote. Anyway, that's why I need her for my expedition. As you'll recall, the colt who would earn the name 'Stormblue,' on discovering Sleetshimmer in the cocoon, wisely disobeyed orders and abandoned his post to warn queen Sunshower."

"Right. He saved his queen from abduction by the changeling, but ended up hospitalized for exhaustion."

"Good, but you're skipping ahead."

The alicorn librarian helpfully levitated the appropriate atlas, and the thick _Hyracotherium_, before them. In turn, the Traveler rummaged in her saddlebag, and emerged with a pince-nez perched atop her nose.

"He ran to the peak of mount Tiptop, an area only twenty paces wide. From there, he flew directly down to the Crystal Palace," her hoof slashed across the map, "here. That has also re-emerged."

"That's right. I've been there, the Palace, I mean."

The Traveler favored the youngster with a nod, and continued. "According to the book, the sonic rainboom Stormblue made went off – directly! - over Tori." She pointed to the relevant passage and smiled, waiting for the librarian, Twilight Sparkle, to put the pieces together.

"But Tori's a myth—oh wait...! If the Crystal Palace is real, and the sonic rainboom's rea... Tori?!" The mare looked dizzy for a moment, rocked by the implications, for underneath Tori lay...

"King Sombra's Mines!" she finally whispered.

"Exactly, somewhere along this line!" The visitor's hoof traced the distance from mount Tiptop to the city that had once been the capitol of Sombra's entire Crystal Empire.

"That's a huge distance," Twilight said, her excitement ebbing. "If the town's buried, you'll never find it! If it even exists."

"Wherever miss Dash sets off her sonic rainboom," the Traveler popped a hoof onto the map, "that's where we dig."

Twilight's pupils contracted as she cogitated. "A lot of assumptions, a lot of unknowable variables, but that just might work."

"You'll recall I found the wreck of the _Hippocampus_ with less."

"The Hipp- wait, you're..." The traveler could almost see the spark in Twilight's eyes. "-_you!_" A wide grin grew on Twilight's face.

"Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoooosh...!" someone was chanting. Both turned, to see the frantically pointing baby dragon, with a sporty-looking mare in tow. The newcomer leaped forward, tumbled expertly across the room and landed nose to nose with the startled traveler. Rainbow Dash's maroon eyes peered, as if trying to reconcile the pince-nez reading glasses with her idol. The older mare flinched under such aggressive scrutiny. Finally, Dash pronounced in an awestruck voice, "Daring Do...!"

The visitor in turn took in the spectral mane. "Hello again, Rainbow Dash," she said calmly.

"You remember me?" Dash squeaked.

Twilight inwardly cringed. If Daring Do answered yes, Dash would be insufferable for a month. Instead she ignored the question, and Dash herself. "Princess," she said to Twilight, "please call me Deedee. 'Daring' is a nickname that stuck."

"Really? Well, only if you'll call me 'Twilight.' I thought your name was A.K. Yearling?"

"Pen name. I value my privacy." Deedee Do turned her attention back to Rainbow Dash. "So how much do I pay you to join me on a trip to the north end of Everfree?"

"Pay... me...? You're kidding, right? I'm in for free! Can I pay you?"

"Two bits a day for the both of you?" She turned again to the alicorn.

"Me?" Twilight frowned. "I can't fly that far. I can barely get off the ground."

"We're not flying, mostly."

"Oh! Well, Everfree's dangerous. I guess it's a fair rate, though I happen to know Rainbow there is in the market for a first edition of _The Sapphire Stone."_ Twilight watched, thoroughly pleased with herself, as Dash almost exploded with glee.

Deedee shrugged. "Got a boxful of 'em. I'll throw in a signed one for free."

"Deal!" Twilight and Deedee bumped hooves to seal the contract, and the latter turned to the door.

"See you both tomorrow morning," Deedee said.

"Wait, wait!" Dash was almost foaming at the mouth. "First you gotta tell me about-"

But the squeaky shout of "surprise!" drowned out anything Dash had to say. Deedee backed away from the door as a fair share of Ponyville flooded through it, led, of course, by a manic, red-pelted filly, her one-pony-polka ensemble drumming and blaring.

"Welcome to Ponyville, Daring Doooooo!"

Deedee answered with an expression that was almost exactly like a smile. "Hello," she said with precisely calibrated good cheer. "Nice to be here. What's your name?"

"I'm Pinkie Pie!" the party pony gushed.

"Hi, Pinkie Pie." The traveler's voice sounded gentle and friendly, as ponies flooded through the door, and Deedee Do allowed herself to be swept into the warm, gushing heart of Ponyville social life.

Twilight Sparkle cocked her head, shrugged, and busied herself with unpacking the box of cider bottles that had materialized in her workspace. She shoved the question of _how_ it had materialized into the ever-growing pile marked, "it's Pinkie Pie – don't question it." Her quiet day, planned two weeks in advance, to be spent reading some of the thousand-year-old volumes Cadence had sent to her, had just been put on indefinite hold. She poured herself a mug, double-checked that she'd not poured hot sauce, and chugged.

She finished in time for Fluttershy to drift up to her.

"Something wrong?"

"I'm... not sure," Fluttershy wore the sort of expression she might wear had she drunk something that looked like, smelled like, tasted exactly like, yet definitely was not cider.

A moment later, Pinkie herself disengaged from the herd and gave Twilight the most perfect expression of complete befuddlement. Then she whispered to both of them over the noise of the party, "y'know, she's kinda weird!"

Fluttershy simply nodded her agreement.

Twilight blinked. "How?"

Pinkie started to answer, but stopped and scratched her head in confusion. "I don't know! She just is." Then all turned as they sensed Deedee approaching.

"Hi," she said to Pinkie Pie. "I'm Daring Do, what's your name?"

"Pinkie... Pie...?"

"Nice to meet you," Deedee gave Pinkie another of those impeccable smiles. "Twilight? I wasn't expecting a social gathering. I'm a pile of tangles. Do you have any place I can tidy myself up?"

"I have a little mirror and dresser upstairs. Make yourself at home."

"Thank you," Deedee answered with textbook good manners, and trotted upstairs.

Pinkie looked like somepony had clubbed her from behind. "She's just met a lot of ponies all at once, Pinkie," Twilight offered. "Don't take it personally."

"Yes, I'm sure that's it," Fluttershy said, looking upstairs. "She's... nice."

"I better go see if I can help," Twilight hopped upstairs, trying not to look too eager to gracefully exit this awkward moment.

What confronted her upstairs was even more awkward: an open window. She just caught the gray streak of the pegasus's escape into the gathering clouds.

Oh dear," Twilight Sparkle whispered. "Yeah, I know how that feels."

* * *

**_All the ponies in this town are crazy!_**

* * *

Kino awoke. In her personal darkness, she could hear the rapid _whoot-pere-whoot_ of whippoorwills, and the noise of a nearby river, and feel the warmth of the sun.

"Hermes? Are you there? Am I back?"

"I'm right here," the reassuring, whispery voice of her companion. "Never left. It's you who keeps fading in and out."

"Don't say that!" Kino shivered. "That's what I'm afraid of – never coming back. I don't wanna get stuck out there. That last one was scary!" She could hear panic in her voice and, for once, didn't even try to hide it.

Hermes, or at least this facet of the mysterious entity by that name, inhabited a classic Brough Superior motorcycle, and provided both transportation and whispered guidance to his rider, Kino the Traveler.

Kino had left behind any other name, especially her family name, and now bore "the traveler" as sobriquet and title. Kino the Traveler was usually a dauntless explorer. Though deceptively gracile, she lived a hearty and dangerous life tramping about, learning about new cultures, working a variety of jobs, and living off the land when the season allowed. Hermes could see her through the open tent flap, and compared the normally proud, independent young woman in her tan overcoat, scruffy brown hair, stormcloud gray eyes, pistols at the ready on her gun belt, with this blind, bedridden patient.

"It happened again?"

"It wasn't a dream," Kino objected in advance. She slumped back into her sleeping bag, grimacing in frustration. "I wasn't even human!"

"Calm down, Kino." Hermes gently ordered. He never used that tone with his rider, unless it was a matter of the utmost importance, though when Hermes needed to be obeyed, few could deny him. "You're still convalescing. Take it slow. You are safe in your tent, beside a river. I'm here with you. We are right next to a refugee camp. The doctor'll take the bandages off your eyes in a few days, no sooner. If you'd like, I can get you some pills to help you sleep."

"No. Really, no. I wanna talk to you. What time is it?"

"About half an hour after sunrise. However badly you're hurt, you're still used to getting up with the sun. I suppose, since you're convalescing anyway, it's good that you're having such entertaining dreams."

"I know what a dream feels like, and this wasn't one. I have silly dreams about being a magical schoolgirl defending a high school from monsters. C'mon, Hermes!"

"This started right after the Kelbright massacre. It's more likely you got a whiff of some of the chemicals the Tatana were spraying about."

Kino shook her head, forgetting she was inside her tent in her agitation. _No, it started when I almost died, and didn't. It felt like I was a flea clinging to a violin string, and someone took a bow to it. I'm... vibrating. _"All those alternate realities I was shuffling through, it's like a radio changing channels, but I've finally locked on to a strong signal. I'm in touch with something. This is way too elaborate for a hallucination. I'm not this imaginative."

"How elaborate?"

Kino took a deep breath, then, "the principality of Equestria is a matriarchal diarchy. Their state religion asserts a single genderless king/queen-god, so they consider a title of 'queen' sacrilegious. Succession is what we'd call 'pharaonic,' as opposed to 'dynastic.' They're expected to choose and groom a successor in the event of disability or death, and relatives are disqualified. Good thing too, since the royal nephew's a notorious creep."

"It's not technically an empire, because they've never annexed a neighbor by force. The monarchs are very clever. They've built a thriving economy and culture, with just enough military power to defend themselves." Kino snatched a breath, then continued her patter. "They await some crisis or anarchy, then make a sweet offer to foreign citizens. Their most recent acquisition is the former capital of the northern 'Crystal Empire.' They run almost the whole continent now, including a griffin state. I could go on. You think I can dream all that up in one night, Hermes?"

"Wow! Okay, so how do these people react to you?"

"Ponies," Kino corrected.

"Ponies," Hermes said dryly.

"I said I wasn't human. And... the usual. They think I'm weird."

"Guess I've seen enough strange stuff in my time to accept that," Hermes deliberately echoed Kino's own bygone words back to her.

"You believe me?" Kino trilled.

"I'm still gonna ask around some of my peers, make sure no one's pranking us. But... yeah, I do. If this was some wish-fulfillment fantasy, they wouldn't be put off by you."

Kino scowled. "Thanks."

"Sorry. Is Equestria itself scary?"

"Absolutely not! It's the best place I've visited since Guri."

"That's high praise! I say go back to sleep. About all you can do anyway, 'til your eyes heal."

Though unable to look at him from behind the bandages hiding her eyes, Kino grunted her agreement, and snuggled back down into her sleeping bag.

* * *

**_No nation, no home, no family..._**

**_I don't have a horse in this race._**

* * *

Someone was knocking. _Loud._ Had been for a while. The sound had interrupted her dreams. Twilight shook herself awake, swayed, and almost fell over in her stupor.

She could hear Spike snoring over the sound of the rain hissing outside, as she carefully descended the stairs in the darkness.

Twilight opened the door, and found herself looking at Deedee Do, wearing her usual expressionless expression, and a gonzo Rainbow Dash, who was splashing up and down in the rain like Lyra after eating one of Bonbon's special candies.

"Let me guess, you didn't pack." Deedee said quietly.

"I didn't sleep!" Rainbow Dash announced.

"Oooh!" Yesterday's events flooded back. "Yeah. Gimme a couple minutes." Twilight retreated back into the sleepy warmth of the library.

Deedee strolled in. Rainbow Dash pronked inside exactly like Pinkie Pie, before Twilight's unbelieving eyes. "Please stop that," Deedee requested, as if asking her to fill out a form. Dash complied immediately, grinning to hide her embarrassment.

"Rainbow Dash," Deedee abruptly put her hooves on either side of Dash's muzzle. "I'm flattered you're so excited, but this is work, and the further away we go from Ponyville, the more dangerous the Everfree gets. I need you to be focused and sensible, understand?"

"Oh!" Dash wiped the grin from her face. "My middle name's Rainbow Professionalism Dash, I promise."

* * *

"Yeah," Hermes snarked, "'Daring Do's' attitude sounds familiar."

Kino grunted. "Terrific. I'm a jerk in two worlds."

"Well, just goes to show you can't run away from your problems, if those problems were in you the whole while. 'Jerk' is a little strong, though."

Silence.

"Ahem! Y'know, I used to be pretty good at dream analysis in my day – _not_ that I'm implying this experience of yours is a dream," Hermes almost stammered in his haste to reassure his companion. "For example, you mentioned four types of ponies?

"Earth ponies, unicorns, pegasi, and alicorns."

"Well, there's a magical 'rule of four.' All sorts of things fit into four categories. Perhaps the pony types line up with the four elements?"

"Earth, fire, air, and water? Nah, that doesn't feel like it fits."

"Well, following your intuition like that's the best way to proceed. How 'bout cardinal directions, or seasons?"

"You mean like the Four Royal Beasts?"

"Kino...?" Hermes sounded astonished. "How do you know about them?"

Kino laughed. "Genbu, Byakku, Seiryu and Suzaku featured in _my_ home town's myths. Plus my mom was into astrology. And you are barking up the wrong tree."

"Huh! Alright, let's try another tree. In one branch of the world's major religions, enlightenment is symbolized by dying and acquiring wings. Remember the haibane?"

"Angels, right. And that makes sense... Twilight may have actually died to get her wings."

"In another, the enlightened grow a kind of horn on the crown of their heads called a _ushnisha._

_That_ made Kino sit up. "Unicorns! Wow, Hermes, that feels right. So earth ponies...?"

"Plenty of nature-based faiths; I'd even count some atheistic cosmologists I've known who found awe and wonder in their studies."

"Huh! And alicorns?"

"...that's... new. I know of no pegasi-unicorns in any mythology. Even the _word_ is new to me, which is kind of exciting. 'Alicorn...'" Hermes relished the word. "Lovely symbol for the hybrid faiths that've emerged. I wonder... y'know, it's so rare to witness the birth of a new archetype."

* * *

**_No matter what our differences, we're all ponies._**

* * *

"Hey, what's the holdup?" Deedee called back, then turned to see her companions removing their rain-ponchos and sitting at the ridge line, staring at the sunbeams pouring through the final scraggly remnants of the morning's rain.

"Celestia does such beautiful work," Twilight said with undisguised reverence.

"Hey Daring?" Rainbow said, "Is this like the sunrise you wrote about in _The Hunt for the Hippocampus?"_

"What sunrise?"

Dash turned to her, grinning. "You almost got poetic about that sunrise over the port of Los Alamitos. 'Moments like these make all the bother and discomfort of traveling worth it,' remember?"

"Uhm... I remember I mentioned in my journal it was a nice sunrise. My ghost writer must've run with that."

"You have a ghost writer?" Twilight's eyes bulged.

"Several. My journal serves as a first draft, but rewriting takes a lot of time, and... everything just comes out a lot better with somepony else polishing it."

Deedee turned away, and pretended not to notice the look of disappointment her companions shared with each other. "Now, will you two pipe down? It'll mean trouble if anyone or anything hears us."

"Deedee, we're not even to the princess's old castle. We've made this trip several times without incident."

"Everfree got a lot safer after Discord's... what'd he call 'em, Twilight? Blunder beans? Ran off most of the dangerous critters."

Deedee chuffed. "Fine, but only 'til we pass the castle. Were you the folks who cleaned the place up, by the way?"

"That was us," Dash affirmed. "You've been there?"

"Spent a big chunk of my foalhood poking 'round in it."

"You went into that creepy old pile as a _foal?_"

"Would you keep it down?"

"You should write a story about that," Twilight nickered quietly.

"_Scaredy Do and the Creepy Castle...?_ Heh!" Deedee said around a pen in her mouth. She scribbled into a waterproofed notebook, then put it away. "That's actually pretty good."

"Have you even read your books?" Dash asked.

"Kinda skimmed 'em. I'm busy."

"You should have seen our faces when we found out 'Daring Do' and everything about her was real!" Dash laughed.

"I did, or at least caught a glimpse of you all while I was fighting."

"Deedee," Twilight said, "is it okay if I ask, why do you have so many disguises and aliases, including 'A.K. Yearling?'"

"Well, I published _Sapphire Stone_ as a desperate way to raise funds for the next expedition."

"The _Griffin's Goblet_!" Dash said excitedly. Deedee noted the glance Twilight gave her, and how the racer immediately became more subdued.

"You even made that a plot point in _Goblet_," Twilight nodded. "At the time, I thought that was just some clever meta-writing."

"Nope. I was just scraping by until about the third book. Then royalties started spilling in. But they also made 'Daring Do' a celebrity, and that made my job a whole lot harder. Mostly I work under aliases now."

"Works, too! We had no idea A.K. Yearling was Daring Do," Rainbow Dash simpered.

"Is it _that_ surprising? The creator of Shirelock Holstein was a medical doctor who used deductive reasoning to 'solve' cases. Henson Maremmano was a sailor, H. P. Lusitano was an astronomer. More often than not, when you find out what else a writer does, the stories they write seem inevitable."

"Write what you know?" Twilight offered.

"More like, 'interesting writers lead interesting lives.'"

"How is it that ponies think Ahuizotl is fictional too?" Twilight asked. "He's really loud."

"And really dangerous! I make him out as a buffoon in the stories, but he's the worst kind of bad news. The sacrifices in the Temple of Calabrese? Not artistic license."

Despite the warm day, both Dash and Twilight shivered.

"Like I said, I deal in secrets. Grave robbers like Dr. Cabaleron and monsters like Ahuizotl thrive in secrecy. Once I publish, their anonymity's gone. What're they gonna do, complain to Celestia about defamation?"

"Eyew! Grave robbers?" Dash spat. The bejeweled skull on Cabaleron's flank had taken on a ghoulish new significance.

"The location of artifacts relative to each other can be as revealing as the artifacts themselves. Greedy idiots like him destroy the historic record. Now, that's the castle to our south. You two keep talking, I'm gonna muzzle you."

* * *

"Let's try the Rule of Four again. Anything come up?"

"The four princesses," Kino said immediately.

"You said earlier they govern the sun and the moon?"

"The third governs emotions, love most notably. The most recent princess is a student of _all_ magic."

"'Student...' and this 'Celestia' is very diligent? Try this - there are four yogas, or paths to enlightenment: love, study, duty, and meditation."

"Hoo... that fits them perfectly, I think you're on to something!" Kino enthused.

"Great! Tell me more."

* * *

_**As the sun rises, so does the moon.**_

_**As love finds a place in every heart...**_

* * *

"Hey, Twilight?"

"Uhmf... Time for my watch?" Twilight yawned hugely. She'd read about ponies taking turns sleeping 'round a campfire, but she'd never actually done it. The thought of trying to stay awake without company was a little intimidating. The thought of a gruff pony like Deedee finding her asleep on watch was even worse.

Dash flicked another log on the fire. "Why does she insist on us walking?"

"Ask her." Twilight shook herself awake.

Dash started for her blanket... then turned and, by the firelight, looked as sad and dispirited as the princess had ever seen her.

"Deedee's nothing like I expected," she whispered.

"She's..." Twilight started, then took a moment to organize her thoughts. She had to speak carefully. For all her bravado, Dash could be fragile in some ways, and it wasn't often the sporty mare allowed her vulnerabilities to show like this.

"It's hard to meet your heroes. I'm disappointed about the ghost writers too, but it makes sense."

"That's not the problem. She's aloof and unapproachable, but she kinda likes you 'cause you're smart, like she is."

"You're a lot smarter than you give yourself credit for. Remember that history test?"

"You two are scholars. I'm only along to make a rainboom. I'm just luggage."

Twilight sighed. "Rainbow, do you remember me when we first met? I was a recluse, totally focused on my studies. You and the rest... you were my first friends. Well... besides Shiny, but he's my brother. And Spike, but he's more like a little brother. ...And Cadence, but she was around mainly to nurse my sick mom back to health. Foal-sitting was just— oh, focus, Twilight!" She slammed her hoof to her forehead. "Deedee is like a lot of scholars I know: totally devoted to her field, to the point of having no social life.

"That's no way to live."

"Remember how long it took to find the Sapphire Stone? From the time she left Brandenburger to her arrival in Groningen – you think you could stand not seeing another pony for a whole year?"

She watched as Dash's pupils contracted at the thought. "Oh, sweet Celestia!" she whispered. "I never thought of that."

"It takes a really exotic personality type to do what she does without going nuts. Give her some time to get to know you, alright? Now get some sleep."

Twilight was secretly pleased with herself. She'd placated Rainbow, for the moment. But she was going to have a serious talk with Deedee in the morning. Loner or not, the dismissive way she'd treated her friends was inexcusable.

"Celestia," Twilight mused, "you built us a realm of harmony and friendship, and then you give us a pony like Deedee."

* * *

_**Interesting writers lead interesting lives.**_

* * *

"Harmony's the word they use to describe their social ethic." Kino continued.

"I seem to remember your own people putting a lot of stock in that."

Kino nodded. "Rén, the virtue of 'people in proper relations with each other.' The trouble is it encourages conformity. 'The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.' My own home town was just an extreme version of that. These ponies though, they wear their individuality on their flanks. 'Everypony singing the same note isn't harmony.'" Kino found quoting the Equestrian proverb strangely reassuring.

"Singing?"

"They teach singing in their schools; it's very important to them. They have professional recording artists too, but unlike here, that doesn't stop everypo— ...every_one_ from joining in."

"You remember any of their songs?"

"_A true, true friend helps a friend in need,_" Kino sang. "That's a song for when someone's in trouble. One could motivate a whole herd into helping with that song."

"Whoa – Kino! Do that again."

"What?"

"Go on."

"'_A friend will be there to help—_"

"Kino... you can sing!"

"I can?"

"You _can!"_ Hermes affirmed with a stunned whisper.

"They teach singing in their schools, and I'm remembering the lessons! Ohmigosh Hermes... please, I don't ever want to forget this!"

* * *

"You're up," Twilight yawned.

"So are you," Deedee answered quietly as she stretched her wings. "Good. I was not in the mood to yell at anypony for sleeping on watch."

"Guess the books got one thing right: you _do_ get up before sunrise."

"Internal clock," Deedee grinned in between performing martial arts moves and stretches. "Stand-to. Old military tradition. We pegasi had quite the martial culture before Celestia's reign."

"I know. I played Clover in a Hearth's Warming pageant."

"You were the high point of the show. Good, dry delivery. The mare who played Smart Cookie was alright, too."

"How...?"

"Aliases, remember? I was also in town the afternoon zippy there took out half'a Cloudsdale's windows." She turned to wake Dash, only to find her gray tail in the vise-grip of Twilight's amaranthine magic.

"Why do you keep riding her down like that?"

"The fangirl?" Deedee rolled her eyes.

"Oooh-kay - _that's_ it! We need to talk."

When they were far enough away so as not to wake Dash, Twilight turned to Deedee, her nostrils flaring. "Rainbow Dash is an Element Bearer; she's helped save all Equestria several times. She deserves your respect."

"I see." Whatever mask Deedee hid her feelings behind, it had locked firmly into place. "You, princess Twilight Sparkle, the pony who recovered the Elements of Harmony, and the Crystal Heart, who solved Starswirl's Last Theorem, you deserve my respect. You're my peer."

"And Rainbow Dash is one of the best fliers in Equestria."

"Take away the sonic rainboom, what else's she got? Why are you giving groupies like that a free ride? They—"

"—are my best friends. And you know what?" Twilight reflexively stifled the anger that was erupting in her... but then _chose_ not to, because Deedee deserved to hear this. "You are nothing like the books say! You are condescending, rude, insensitive, grouchy, and maybe you're alone so much because you're not fit company for anypony! And we're leaving!"

Twilight turned tail, flicked it in anger at "Daring Do," and stormed back to camp.

* * *

**_You can't run away from your problems, if those problems were in you the whole while._**

* * *

"A true, true friend..." Kino quoted softly. _Night time now. The crickets are chirping._

"It's three in the morning, isn't it, Hermes?"

"What's the matter? You sound sad."

"There's something inherently depressing about being awake at three in the morning. All your problems seem so much worse. Awww Hermes... my only friend is a talking motorcycle. A gaggle of hate-filled zealots have put a price on my head. The ones who're fighting 'em want me to go shoot people... I'm blind and broken, and I've pretty much told all humanity they can jump off a cliff. Why is my world so screwed up? Why am_ I_ so screwed up?"

"Go back to sleep."

* * *

**_We're a long way from Equestria._**

**_We're a long, long way._**

* * *

"Dash?" Twilight said gently. How was she to explain this? Well, Twilight was pretty sure they wouldn't really leave. After all, they were bearers of the Elements of Harmony. Abandoning a potential friend was out of the question. But the demonstration had to be made. She'd allow Dash to talk her out of it.

She moved the blanket with her horn, only to find it empty. For an instant, she reeled in horror at the thought that Dash had _overheard _the argument! For all her bravado, Dash worshiped ponies like Celestia, Spitfire, and Daring. Nothing could crush her worse—

"DOWN!" Deedee leapt on her, forcing her into the dirt. "SHIELD! SHIELD!" she commanded before Twilight could lose her temper. Her head caught up with events, and she labored to get a shield up just as she heard Deedee yell in pain.

Then she winced, struggling to maintain her shield under a sudden onslaught of arrows. Several of them penetrated, lodging inside the glowing sphere like pins in a pincushion.

"How long can you keep this up?" Deedee yelled.

"Depends. How many arrows do they have?"

They shared a look.

"Run!" they concluded as one.

Twilight spread her wings and took off, only to be yanked to the ground. She looked back to see Deedee's teeth clamped to her tail. Getting her own tail pulled like that hurt so much, she resolved to apologize to Dash for all the times she'd done it, if they got out alive.

Deedee let it go to say, "no flying! They attack in numbers, you'd be an easy shot. Use the brush — c'mon!"

They sprang up and, Twilight's shield moving with them, ran away from the arrows.

They'd not galloped forty furlongs before the ground vanished beneath them. They had no way of knowing, but they'd run right off the side of a mesa. Twilight let the shield loose, and the pair of ponies rattled around inside the sphere as it rolled and bounced down the cliff face, until it finally came to a rest at the bottom.

"Please get off me," Deedee said from underneath Twilight's dock.

"Sorry," she climbed to her hooves, and allowed the shield to vanish. "Well, that was undignified." Then Twilight gasped. "Deedee, you're bleeding!" A neat hole was streaming blood down the back of Deedee's left hind leg, a scarlet river against her chestnut pelt.

"It punched right through." Again, Deedee's voice had gone cold, sounding more like she was solving a difficult equation than fearing for her life. "Stings when I move, but I'll be fine. I think we're safe for the moment. I've got a first-aid kit in my tack. You know what to do?"

Twilight set to work. "I uh... not really."

"I'll talk you through it."

And Deedee did, her voice calm and rational, and devoid of panic, as if teaching a class in field medicine. Twilight found the voice soothing, the eye of a hurricane.

"I sure get beat up a lot," Deedee mourned, finally letting that collected mask slip a little.

"I didn't see who was shooting at us," Twilight said as she finished.

"'Course not," Deedee inspected the bandage with satisfaction. "They're invisible. Told you to stay quiet."

"Invisible?"

"Pookas," Deedee growled. "I hate these ponies."

Mentally, Twilight reviewed what she'd read about the mysterious _púca_, or "pookas," as most called them. "Invisible equines," she recited, "insular, very territorial, noted for mischief, a healthy appetite for cider, and a distinctive accent. At least one faction of 'em has rebelled against Celestia's authority, and caused serious trouble. I'll recommend the next edition adds 'archery.' No wonder you wanted us to be quiet, if you knew this was pooka territory."

"You do your homework," Deedee tapped the brim of her pith helmet. "Yeah, they migrate within their claimed region. There was a chance of running into 'em."

"We have to find Rainbow." Despite Deedee being the elder pony, Twilight felt her leadership asserting itself.

"I know," Deedee reluctantly agreed. "I kin talk like 'em," she suddenly affected a musical brogue. "Don' suppose you kin make me invisable? Cud pass, an' sneak rite thrru 'em."

"Just another form of disguise?" Twilight grinned. Despite their squabble, it really was nice working with such a resourceful pony.

"I'd take cover if I were you!" A familiar voice shouted from somewhere above them.

Twilight's pupils contracted in alarm. "Down! Cover your ears!" She ordered Deedee, and not an instant too soon, as a thunderous shock wave blasted past them.

"The hoof was _that?"_ Deedee whimpered through the ringing in their ears, as several ponies smashed through the trees and landed at their hooves.

"That... was a sonic rainboom," Twilight said with undisguised glee.

The stunned — and _visible_ — pookas, started to climb back up. Deedee was having none of that, and bucked and clocked them into submission with practiced ease. Twilight found herself wishing she could enjoy that show again, but this time she forced herself to focus on blasting still more of the pookas with her horn.

"Hey, I can do this all day!" Rainbow Dash taunted from nearby, outpacing arrows with a showy move that Twilight remembered as "the Superspeed Strut." The move arced Dash back to the source of the arrows, and she switched abruptly to "the Buccaneer Blaze," sending more pookas flying.

Twilight noticed to her delight that Deedee, surrounded by felled foes, had stopped to stare, her mouth hanging open.

"Shouldn't we help her, maybe?" Twilight nudged.

"Oh, right." Deedee said sheepishly.

* * *

With the pookas subdued and visible, and their crossbows and blowguns broken into kindling, Twilight paused to get a better look. Pookas were smaller than the ponies of Ponyville, a little roly-poly, and actually kind of cute.

"Which one of you is responsible for this?" she asked the group in general. When no pony answered, she levitated one until it was muzzle-to-muzzle with her. "Who's in charge, here?"

"No one's tellin' ya nuthin," the pooka said defiantly.

"Hey, you can talk to her," Rainbow Dash, rough and scratched, as if she'd flown through a briar patch, leered, "or you can talk to _her_." On cue, Deedee, one eye blackened and her leg bandaged, loudly smacked one hoof into the other.

"Now now, none of that," Twilight said gently. "If I promise no one will get hurt, will you answer my question?"

"Tha's enough," a deeper-voiced stallion emerged from the pack of defeated pookas. "What d'ya wanna talk about? Have yer say."

"What's your name?"

"'Tis Moonbow Morgan."

"Moonbow, I am princess Twilight Sparkle, and I'm authorized to speak on behalf of the principality of Equestria." Twilight stood tall and proud. "I intend to let your friends there go, but I need a promise from you first."

"Wha's that, then?"

"_You_ are going to march straight south to Canterlot. You get to explain to Celestia herself why you shot arrows at me."

"Don' do it," a voice called from the crowd of pookas. "She'll lob you in a du'geon."

"Or banish you!" Twilight wailed in mock hysterics. "Or banish you and then throw you in a dungeon in the place that she banishes you to. But that's not really her style." Twilight gave the crowd a wink. "Still, I want your word, right here, in front of your fellow pookas."

"Just walk right up an' introduce m'self?" Moonbow chuffed.

"That's right, and I let you all free. And we all go about our business. Or we could go back to beating on each other, I guess."

"My word it is," Moonbow grumbled.

"Don't go it alone though, Moonbow. Everfree's dangerous. Safe travels to everypony, then." And Twilight turned her tail to the pookas. Deedee, accustomed as she was to the worst of company, gave the pookas a final warning glare before following.

After they'd made some distance, Dash gloated, "you looked pret-ty coool there, princess!"

"Excellent tactics, Rainbow," Deedee said, "countering invisibility with area-of-effect attacks. You really think he'll keep his word, Twilight?"

"I do. That pooka's a leader. Being caught in a bald lie in a negotiation like that would slowly, surely eat away at his leadership. No relationship can survive without honesty."

"So what'll Celestia do?"

"Oh, after sharing a barrel of zap-apple cider, and drinking him under the table a couple times, I'm sure they'll be fast friends, and well on their way to negotiating away their differences." Twilight shrugged. "It's what she does."

Deedee was rummaging around in her tack, producing what looked like vials of medicine.

"_Zap_-apple cider?" Rainbow's eyes bulged and her tongue lolled.

"Oh, that's Sweet Apple Acres' _private_ reserve. Applejack shared some with me on coronation day. If it's a special occasion, and you ask her reaaally nicely..."

"You starting to feel stiff yet, 'Bo?" Deedee asked.

"Huh?"

"Get down here. Lemme see those scratches." Rainbow obediently landed, and Deedee pointed out the yellow, pollen-like dust around the wounds.

Twilight's muzzle curdled in sympathy. "What in Equestria happened to you?"

"Flew right through a bunch'a thorns."

"Purple-black vines, pinkish thorns?"

"Uhh... I had my hooves over my eyes. But I'm alright, it's just scratches."

"You are _not_ alright!" Deedee said firmly. "Hold your breath." Deedee dusted the yellow pollen off with her tail, then fastidiously shook that clean. Then she rubbed some sort of horseapple-green salve onto a cloth. "Twilight, what do you know about black lotus?"

"Ohhh dear!" Twilight said. "The pollen can paralyze if inhaled or if it gets into a wound. Small animals die and fertilize the bad soil it grows in. It doesn't grow as far south as Ponyville."

"Hmph! Sounds just like the entry in _A Pony's Primer on Poisonous and Pernicious Plants."_

Twilight nodded. "Yeah, that's the book I was quoting."

"And that was the second of three articles I submitted to it," Deedee said with some pride. "At every scratch, the thorns will cause 'Bo's muscles to cramp. Tomorrow morning she'd wake up stiff as a signpost. It really hurts, and we'd end up carrying her home."

Dash went from looking a little panicky to a lot panicky.

"But... I brought the right medicine," Deedee smiled at the small collection of vials she was mixing.

"Because of course you did," Rainbow laughed in relief.

"First rule of traveling..." Deedee began, "always come prepared," they ended together.

"Come on now, lie down. Twilight, stand watch."

So Rainbow obediently reclined onto a patch of green moss, while Deedee methodically swabbed the multitude of scratches.

"Yow! It itches. OooooOOOOH!" Dash gritted her teeth and shook all over. "Iiiitches!" Her hooves dug into the ground.

"Been there. Try not to think about it. Just don't bite or kick me. Tell me uhhm... tell me how you learned to do a sonic rainboom."

"Eeeuurk! Oh- okay... I w-was in a race in Cloudsdale. My opponent shoved me into a cloud right before a steep dive. I got a little mad, and power-dived. Somehow I just... felt the wall of air in front of me getting more solid, like a trampoline, and knew I'd be able to use it to bounce myself away from the ground - boom!"

Deedee nodded.

Twilight found more of her attention being pulled to the tableau the pair offered. Deedee was focused on her work, but that aloof, distanced mask was gone. She was handling Rainbow Dash gently, almost maternally. And despite the strain, Dash flashed a grin, visible only to Twilight, that was priceless – Deedee cared, she really did!

For her part, Deedee was aware the situation crossed several of her comfortable boundaries. But for some dimly-remembered reason, she felt it important to allow that.

"So as long as I'm going that fast," Dash continued with a strained voice, "I can use the air to kinda bounce around and make impossible turns. The momentum dies off pretty quick, though."

"Y'know, this is just as impressive in its way as escaping deathtraps in tombs," Twilight said. "When did you get hit with black lotus?"

"Early on, I was about your age. I was looking for the pyramid of N'Gala the Mad."

"That'd be just before the Sword in the Tomb of Time."

"You really have read those silly books, haven't you?"

"They're not silly, they're fun. You ought to read 'em sometime."

"Not a fast reader. If I spent my time reading those books, when would I have time to make new ones?"

"The disadvantage of being a fast reader," Twilight countered, "is that fun books go by way too fast. That's why I love a big series like yours."

"By the way, how does _Daring Do and the Sonic Rainboom_ sound?" Deedee's voice remained businesslike, as if totally unaware of the effect this would have on her patient. But Dash looked almost silly with happiness.

"Did I get 'em all? The itching should be dying down about now."

Dash nodded. She looked a sight, her muscles quivering and her pelt covered in green smudges. "Yeah, it's tolerable. Thanks. Hey, you ever heard of Poison Joke?"

* * *

Kino shook her head, then remembered she was inside a tent. "No Hermes, I know your color theory is tempting, but the Elements of Harmony don't line up with 'chakras' at all."

"Now hang on! Look at the colors of the Element bearers' pelts, adding in the dragon. Their personalities kinda fit."

"Really reaching there, Hermes."

Hermes chuffed. "Drat! Wrong tree again?"

"Ooooh - tree! I gotta tell you all about the Tree of Harmony."

Kino started describing it, but Hermes soon interrupted her. "Lemme guess, right above the tree's roots is the symbol of the moon, then of the sun, right?"

"Yes, exactly."

"And then these Elements of Harmony in a big circle?"

"How'd you know?"

"What you're describing is the Tree of Life. Features in just about every faith and mythology out there. People get hanged from it, nailed to it, eat fruit from it, sit down and gain enlightenment under it. Tree symbolism is major mojo. Now here's the kicker, Kino. The sephiroth directly above Tifereth the sun sign, is missing."

"Huh?"

"It's called da'at, the hidden sipheroth."

"Hidden, occult," Kino mused. "...Magic."

* * *

**_...but only five are known. _**

**_The sixth is a complete mystery._**

* * *

"And so we had to pull Applejack's big rump out of that little barrel," Dash finished. They'd built a fire, and Rainbow had turned her Poison Joke tale into a campfire story.

Deedee chuckled, which was near enough to a belly laugh for her. "You should introduce me to this Zecora."

"So how exactly are we gonna find Tori tomorrow?"

Deedee yawned lazily. "I think Twilight here would enjoy explaining a cartographic intersection."

Twilight unrolled the map. "I stand on a hilltop here. Daring stands on this one over here. You fly from Tiptop here on course for the Crystal Empire. We use these compasses to mark where you set off the rainboom. Since we're seeing it from two different places, the line to you is along two different lines, or azimuths. We hafta adjust for the difference between cartographic and magnetic—"

"Now you're showing off, Twi," Deedee chided.

"We draw two lines. Where those two lines cross..."

Dash grinned. "X marks the spot!"

"Had to say it," Deedee smirked.

"It's too quiet out here," Rainbow's ears hunkered down against her head. "Don't you get lonesome?"

Deedee shook her head. She looked just a bit embarrassed at the question, and perhaps a little sad. Twilight was pleased she was learning to read Deedee. It was like learning to listen to Fluttershy.

"Rarely. It's peaceful. I mean... it's good to stop in towns for a change, to buy supplies. But places like Ponyville are so noisy and crowded. No offense."

Twilight and Dash shared a look. "There's a new perspective on Ponyville," Rainbow Dash muttered.

"I'm sorry I ran away from the welcome party."

"It's alright," Twilight nodded. "For quiet ponies like us, Pinkie can be overwhelming."

"I'm better 'round campfires." Deedee gestured to Dash's polychromatic mane. "Hey 'Bo, why do you dye your mane?"

Twilight cocked a curious eyebrow at Dash, surprised. An internal debate was written plainly on Dash's face.

"Sorry, Guess I embarrassed you."

"Aw, my mane's straw yellow," Rainbow Dash finally confessed, and indicated the undyed yellow strip. "It looks so boring!"

"That's why I asked. Stormblue's was straw-colored."

"The first pony to make a rainboom," Twilight explained. "She thinks you're related." The thought evidently pleased Rainbow Dash very much. "I'll do some genealogical research in Cloudsdale. How 'bout you, Daring? Is that natural?"

Deedee nodded her head. "Gray runs in the Do family. You want me to take first watch, Twi? You look a little sleepy."

"If that'd be alright?"

Deedee stood. "We've got you covered, 'Bo. You need to be fresh tomorrow. Bed."

"You got it," Dash saluted cheerfully.

"I'm glad we're working together more smoothly now," Deedee commented as she walked to the edge of the fire's little circle of light. She might as well have been talking about the weather.

Twi waited until she was sure Deedee was out of earshot before whispering to Dash, "She starting to make sense now?"

Dash nodded. "She's not 'weird.' She's just... who she needs to be: stoic, and completely self-reliant. I never imagined I'd meet somepony so different!"

"Not so different. If princess Celestia hadn't sent me to Ponyville with a checklist of friends to meet, that's what I would've become. I need to write a big 'thank you!' note when we get back."

"So do I," Dash commented dryly. Twilight grinned at the implied compliment, and gave Dash's colorfully dyed mane a playful stroke with her hoof.

"Let's see... dear princess Celestia," Rainbow Dash began. "Sorry I don't write more. I'm not very good at it. I've been traveling with Daring Do herself, can you believe it? And I learned two very important lessons."

Quietly, Twilight used her horn to pluck a pen and parchment from her bag.

"First, meeting your heroes can be hard. No pony can ever measure up to the idea you've got in your head, and we all have our faults. So the real pony behind the stories will disappoint you. But don't be fooled! If you stick with 'em, you'll eventually see with your own eyes the awesome and cool stuff that got all the tall tales started."

Dash yawned from her sleeping bag, then, "second, everypony is different. Some, like Pinkie, are the life of the party. Some, like Fluttershy, like their peace and quiet. A few even like being alone. Those can be hard to..." Dash fought to find the right words. "...to befriend, because they're... just so used to being alone. You need to be more patient with them. But if you're careful, if they finally accept your friendship, they can be the most loyal friends of all. How's that?"

"Perfect," Twilight answered. She rolled the parchment and put it back in her bag, with a wink to the surprised Rainbow Dash.

* * *

Rainbow Dash panted as she half-flew, half-climbed up the steep mountainside. Her breath came out in a fog before her muzzle, and the air was getting thinner.

Deedee had copied the relevant passage from the _Hyracotherium - _always looking ahead, always prepared. Twilight had read it aloud this morning. The archaic poetry was difficult for Dash, but Twilight guided her friend through it. Now Dash looked at the terrain about her, and she recognized it. Just like the book described. She was galloping in Stormblue's hoof-prints, leaving her own trail in the snow a thousand years later! She felt connected to him, the colt who, in his desperation to save his Empress, had made the impossible happen.

Hadn't Rainbow Dash done the same, for Fluttershy, then for Rarity? Did long-departed Stormblue's blood flow in her own veins? The thought made Dash feel lightheaded, or maybe that was the thin air. She was grateful that, where Stormblue had flown all the way to the Crystal Palace, the long race that had almost killed him, Rainbow Dash could turn back as soon as the momentum faded.

As instructed, she'd given Twilight and Deedee two hours to reach their assigned spots on the map, before racing from the vicinity of Stormblue's lookout (the records of its location were vague) to the peak. They'd shoot the 'X' from their compasses, marking the site of the rainboom, and if luck held, Tori.

Celestia, Deedee had said, would surely provide "Daring Do" with a full expedition, complete with security, to exhume the ruins. Records would be scrupulously taken, and any dangerous artifacts found would be secured in Canterlot. The rest would go to exhibits. Provided they found anything, of course.

Rainbow stopped at the peak of Tiptop to catch her breath. She looked east, a little to the south, at the gap in the ridge ahead. There! Stormblue would try to thread the needle on his way to the capitol of the Crystal Empire. It was obvious - that's where he would have aimed.

That's where she would aim.

"Wings," Dash said, her own personal ritual, "don't fail me now!" And she took off.

She flapped hard, rising, thinking of Stormblue's urgent need to save his queen. Dash imagined her own princess Celestia in danger, though what might endanger her, Dash didn't care to imagine. Finally, with the mountain behind and the land a featureless green blur far below, Dash power-dived.

It all felt familiar, the gale ripping at her cheeks, the wind splashing tears from her eyes, the roar in her ears. _I like it, a lot! Did you, Stormblue? No matter how upset you were, did you admit to yourself how much fun this is?_

The air stiffened at her hooves, until it felt like a wall of rubber. If she slackened at all, she'd bounce off that wall and be hurled backwards. Instead she poured it on, tearing at it with both hooves. Dash imagined Rarity falling away from her. That was the trick. _You were saving your queen, and I was saving Rarity. It's a matter of loyalty!_

_BOOM!_

And Rainbow Dash was through, and passing the gap in an instant. Mission accomplished, she bounced backward impossibly, not merely bending her rainbow-wake, but putting sharp corners on it. Again and again, until she'd reversed course. She never did get to see the explosion as clearly as onlookers did. By the time she could look back or turn about, her speed had carried her far away.

The momentum was dying down. She cruised back toward the epicenter of the rainboom, back to her friends.

* * *

**_...to see the light, that shines_**

**_...from a true, true friend._**

* * *

Hermes gasped.

"Huh? Hermes, what is it?"

"Are you alright?"

Kino sniffled a little. "I feel good. Better than I have in a while. Why?"

"You can't see a thing, can you?"

She felt the bandages around her head. "Nope. Why, what did you see?"

"Old magic, wild magic, like I haven't seen since I was young. I'm still seeing it. There was a... a ripple of white light. It traced all over you like a wave. And when it was gone, your... your color's back. I mean _really_ back! You're glowing."

_It's still night. I can hear crickets._ Kino climbed to her knees, then to her feet, out of her tent for the first time in a week.

"Whoa, easy Kino!"

Surprisingly, she didn't feel shaky at all. She set about unwrapping the bandage, ignoring Hermes' cautions and fretting.

Out here, far from any town except the ashen ruins of Kelbright, the stars shone brighter. And in moments her eyes, accustomed to cave-dark, drank in starlight that had never seemed brighter, drank in the sliver of a moon that did not come up because of unicorn magic, probably.

She turned tearing eyes to her friend, seeing him very clearly by the moonlight, and she said, "I know what I have to do."

.


	2. Chapter 2

"What are you going to do?"

Kino was sitting cross-legged on her blanket in darkness, staring toward what her compass said was the east.

"My eyes need to adjust slowly. I'm going to watch the sunrise. The gradual change should set 'em right."

"Not what I meant."

"Hermes, I've been thinking... do you remember, you once told Gia I have a disorder 'cause of my parents trying to kill me?"

"I was wrong."

Kino cocked an eyebrow and looked to her friend. "Really?"

"It's innate," Hermes explained. "Yes, your childhood was screwed up in ways that creep even me out, which is saying something considering _my_ family's antics. But even before that... did you fit in with the other kids?"

"No."

"What was their nickname for you?"

"Gloomy."

"Bingo."

"Huh! So I am sick."

"I might have said so, before you kept your head while being chased by dogs, snipers and a wildfire, before I watched you guard the lives of two children in your care. You did what was necessary, and nothing about it surprised me."

Kino sat and brooded.

"Am I right you're not taking pride in what you did at Kelbright, that you even feel ashamed of it, because you rationally, dispassionately considered abandoning the Chois to fend for themselves?"

"...yeah," Kino confessed.

"But that's only your nature! Once the massacre began, you carried on in a situation that would have broken even hardened soldiers. Your being emotionally withdrawn and detached allows you to do that. It lets you do things most people can't. That's who you are. You're a little bit superhuman that way."

"But I did panic, when my arm was broken and I knew I wasn't going to get out alive."

"Yeah, I saw it. Even you can't entirely hold back your feelings when faced with failure and imminent death, but you forced them aside in record time, to give little Yasumi and Tegra a chance to survive. I've never felt prouder to call you my friend."

Kino laid back on her blanket in the growing light. After a time she said, "thank you, Hermes," and her voice cracked.

"Aha! See? You have feelings," Hermes said warmly. "You aren't bereft of feelings. That _would_ be an illness. You just have an uncanny control over them, where everyone around you is controlled _by_ them.

"What?" Kino sat up, and found herself fighting off a sudden attack of xenophobia. "Eeek! But that's... how do they get on?"

"Not very well. They kinda bumble through. You see how different you are now? Why people have trouble relating to you?"

"Wow... so you're saying no matter where I go, I'll always be a foreigner."

"Even in your native land, or in that land of equines."

"But that makes it a disorder, right?"

"Does it? Yes, other people can't relate to you; you are different, and always will be. But this gift gives you serenity, and strength. Most people can't just shut off their emotions and proceed from pure pragmatism - and ethics, I hasten to add - the way you can. Brief tangent: it's kinda cool you're walking proof decency doesn't stem from sentimentality."

"Until they get to know you, like I do, they'll always see you as cold and distant, even creepy. So-called normal people will stick some label or other on you to try to understand you. It's not fair, but everything has its price."

"What do we do?"

"We both accept you for who you are. And you make a choice."

"A choice?"

"You don't really need people. You're not a herd animal. You could live all alone, magnificent in your strength and solitude, like a great bird of prey perched on a mountaintop. Or... you could fight down those loner instincts, make the effort to get people to trust you despite your being different, and not be so lonesome anymore."

As if on cue, the sun emerged over the nearby ridge line. Kino looked away, blinking.

"I know what I have to do," she said again, and smiled.

"You keep saying that. _What_ are you going to do?"

"Go see my friends!"

* * *

"Permission to come aboard, captain?" Kino called.

Captain Forester strolled to the gangplank. "Well, this is a surprise." He didn't sound entirely friendly, but he waved her aboard.

Despite the plaster on her arm, Kino had bathed with a sponge to rid herself of the smoky stink of Kelbright at last, and donned fresh clothing.

"Food's scarce 'round here," Kino commented. "But if you'll supply the ingredients, I'll fix up breakfast for the captain's table, for old time's sake."

"What did you come here to talk about, miss Kino?" he said.

"Oh, that's a nasty cold shoulder, sir! I couldn't find an olive branch either, but I did try."

The captain allowed the corners of his tight lips to curl upward. "In that case, join me to celebrate the restoration of your sight. I suppose being blind for a week gave you time to contemplate?"

They strolled together to the captain's quarters, where several boys, younger than Kino, were tidying up, and setting out coffee and a meager breakfast. "Make it for two," the captain ordered. Kino stood until he gestured for her to sit. Kino was surprised how quickly and willingly she fell back into deferential manners around the man.

"Sir, not long ago, I said I wanted nothing to do with civilization, or humanity itself. And I meant it, at the time. I came here to apologise."

The captain nodded. "You are recovering from a traumatic event, a condition I'm all too familiar with. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't said or done things recently that I regret." The captain's voice took on a haunted tone. "So, of course I forgive you, and let's speak no more of it. But that still leaves the matter of your unfinished contract with me."

Kino took a sip from the cup before her. Shandy, of course it was. And she held her peace.

"Kino, I'm short-handed. The Renewah boarded my ship, and they almost won."

"Is that how Mr. Belk...?"

Forester nodded solemnly. "We sailed here with a skeleton crew. A score of the Kelbright refugees have signed up, like these fine boys." He gestured magnanimously to his yeomen. "But they're all green. I immediately saw your native intelligence, and I've witnessed your cleverness. If what Flores says of you is true, I'd likely field-promote you to major of marines in a matter of weeks. I know you can't be bribed, but if I may appeal to your self-interest as well – with the prestige you've accrued as the hero of Kelbright, you might make Captain someday."

He halted when she raised her hands and shook her head. "Sir, I'm not fit. You were right when you called me a misanthrope."

Forester's brow furrowed.

"It's just how I'm wired. I'm alright hidden away in a galley or something, but..." she shook her head. _It's too complicated to explain why I make people uncomfortable, so "misanthrope" is as good a label as any._ "It's hopeless. I'd be miserable, and I'd make everyone around me miserable. Just take my word for it."

"Regrettable," the captain sighed.

"But I didn't come here only to make amends. It's time for me to do my part, and there's a much better way for me to fight the Tatana than shooting at 'em. But to do that, I need to find Flores."

"Really? What _are_ you going to do?"

* * *

"Thanks so much for seeing me!" Kino said to Mister Flores. Forester's word must carry some weight, because Flores arrived at her tent by the afternoon. She felt glad that her compulsive tidiness had motivated her to clean up the area. "I know you must be busy."

"Not at all, my dear!" The ever-unctuous Flores minced. "Why, I was just planning to stumble by to check on your recuperation. I see you've made splendid progress." He handed her a sunflower. "I did search 'round for a proper get-well bouquet, but Kelbright's florist is out of stock."

Despite herself, Kino smirked at this madcap cavalier. "First, I'm really sorry for what I said to you and the captain."

"Pish-tosh!" He dusted off a rock and perched on it, his long legs making him look like some sort of gawky bird. "If ladies and gentlemen failed to turn a blind eye to choler in moments of weakness, why, the species would grind to a halt!"

Kino laughed. "I suppose it would. Alright, I need to get a message to the Tatana."

"Eh? The captain did say you had some sort of scheme. I'm intrigued."

"I know them. I know why they're attacking."

Flores sat up. "I'd very much like to know that," he said, and every trace of his insouciance had evaporated.

"I'll tell you everything I can. But in exchange, I need you to get me on a radio or something."

Flores smiled. "How funny you should mention that!" He produced a portable radio from a vest pocket. "I've never actually met this one, only her agent. In fact, any information you could give me, besides their peerless taste in music, would also be more than welcome."

He turned it on, and a sultry contralto crooned, "this is Radio Freedom, rockin' out our pirate signal all day and all night." Kino's mouth puckered to a little "o" of surprise and delight.

"So why the radio, Miss Kino? What are you going to_ do?_"

* * *

Kino finished outlining her plan to the widow Choi. Mrs. Choi was drawing up blueprints, but she didn't appear to want to share her design with Kino. That made sense, as Choi was now thoroughly committed to the resistance. Kino knew better than to pry.

"So will you speak, and let Yasumi and Tegra speak?"

Mrs. Choi sighed. "I hate involving them any more than I must."

_Yeah, if Kelbright worked me over, what did it do to them? _"Please? This is important. It could prevent more children from suffering as they did..."

The engineer considered, and finally nodded her consent. "I cannot deny you or Mr. Flores anything."

"Aside from this favor, your friendship will do fine."

Mrs. Choi's normally inexpressive face bloomed with a smile. "Oh, of course, Kino, that's yours by right!" And she up and hugged the traveler.

* * *

"Gia!" Kino bounced up and down with real happiness.

Gia smiled wide. Her mouth was still lopsided, and gave Kino her usual pang of regret for Gia's ruined beauty, but she pushed that aside, as her friend grabbed her into a warm and not quite innocent embrace.

"First things first, you sure you weren't followed?" Gia glanced around in the night.

Kino nodded. "Not even by Flores. He's curious as a cat about you two!"

"I know! Wouldn't do. He's a little too scrupulous for us, know what I mean?" Gia held the hug, and whispered into Kino's ear, "we heard all about Kelbright. When you're feelin' up to it, I promise a thoroughly indecent reward."

Kino sniggered. "Something to look forward to. Meantime, we've got business. Show me your setup?"

_Just as well we meet just after sunset. Night-time's the right time for these two._

Gia escorted Kino to a parking lot, where "Christine" waited in a corner, just outside the halo of a lamp. "We move every two hours. The system's in back." At Gia's gesture, the trunk lid popped open on its own, revealing broadcasting equipment. "Our signal's weak, but tight and encoded. Really hard to zero on. We beam it to three vans driving in circles around us. _They_ transmit the strong signals, and because they're mobile, it's just about impossible to get a fix on 'em."

"Little over my head, but I think I follow," Kino nodded.

As Gia shut the trunk, the driver and passenger doors opened. _Funny how I'm just used to that now,_ Kino thought. They both climbed in, and Kino sank into the luxurious leather and savored the heat. "A traveler could get used to this," she commented over Tisiphone's patter on the radio. The slinky voice was just finishing a set.

"...your pirate radio, rockin' your revolution all night long. Here's an oldie that will never go out of style." The slow rock music segued into something nostalgic.

_"Underneath the lantern, by the barricade, darling I remember the way you used to wait. T'was there that you whispered tenderly..."_

"Hello there, Kino," the Fury said with a friendly backstage tone. _It's nice to have made peace with her, finally._ "Got four songs queued up, so what's on your mind?"

Kino tapped the microphone plugged into the car's A/V system. "Looks like somebody's found their dream job!"

"Oh my yes, I'm havin' _fun!_ DJ for the resistance. The all-you-can-eat buffet doesn't hurt either."

Kino pulled some papers from her pocket. She'd spent most of the day writing it. "Could I broadcast something? And can you put it on every frequency, to make sure the Tatana hear it?

"Broadband, huh? Hmm... I s'pose. Gimme ten minutes for the vans to hook up to the big jennies for extra power. What'cha gonna do?"

* * *

"Hello. My name is Kino," she said into the mike. For a moment, the thought of how many people could hear her voice made her feel dizzy, but she shoved the stage fright and her accustomed reticence into her strong box.

"Many of you know me as the one who saved two children from the Kelbright massacre. The survivors of the Choi family will be on tomorrow evening to tell their stories. Tonight, I wanna talk about the Tatana."

"Over two years ago, I visited two city-states called Veldelval and Relsumia, who massacred the Tatana tribes for sport. The Tatana tried to kill me then, to feed their rage and need for vengeance."

"Someone was foolish enough to sell or loan these tribes advanced weapons. I don't expect anyone in those perverted cities has survived. Now the Tatana are lashing out at all around them. In their terror, and anger, they see everyone as a threat. And in their outrage they feel their violence is justified. I remember someone once said, 'only the unloved hate, the unloved and the unnatural.' If only that were true! Being hurt makes you hate, being made a helpless victim makes you hate. And when hatred consumes you, you can, by a cruel paradox, _become_ that which you hate most. This has happened to the Tatana."

"When the Choi children speak, you'll hear the suffering the Tatana inflicted upon them. But remember, it's the same with Tatanan children."

"It doesn't have to be this way! We can, if we choose, break this cycle of bloodshed and evil." Kino considered Tisiphone, and her story. "Not with violence and mob justice, nor with laws and courts and recriminations either. That's a reasonable and sensible answer, and it's still _wrong!"_

"The first step is to stop hurting each other. I don't have any illusions, I'm one little person, one little voice. No one can reach those who hurt and kill because they like it. Yes, they do exist, but they're a tiny fraction we must banish. Tatanans, put down your weapons and surrender. Free peoples, welcome them, help them, and forgive them."

Kino wondered what to say next. Her recent sojourn in Equestria came to her rescue. "We live in a world of discord. It makes us jaundiced, and disenchanted. The only way out is to forge new, healthy bonds of fraternity, based upon candor and love for the truth, fidelity to each other and to our ethics, munificence and compassion for those less fortunate. And for pity's sake, learn to smile humbly at your own human faults – we all have them! Sometimes by accepting our imperfections, we can turn them into our unique strength."

"Only by valuing and cultivating these virtues can we find, or even see, what we've been missing all along – harmony: each of us singing our own notes, in our own voices, together. Only then can we build a better world."

It was, as Kino hoped, a brief, concise speech. _Time to wrap it up._

"As for me, the Tatana have a price on my head. Though I killed in self-defense, I mourn the lives lost. I will do what I do best: travel. I'm going as far away as I can, not because I'm afraid of the Tatana, but because I'm afraid of more violence, of what more killing might do to me. I wish you all well."

Kino hit the switch that shut off the mike, and sighed her relief. _Feel like I ran five clicks. That took more out of me than I imagined!_

Tisiphone's voice broke the radio's silence. "Sorry you're leaving us, Kino. I guess all we can do is play you a song. _'We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when...'"_ the disembodied voice crooned.

_Don't know that one. Much as I love Hermes, I gotta admit, hanging 'round Tisiphone has advantages too._

Kino put the mike back into the car, and found herself ambush-hugged by Gia. "That was really good! I'm comin' to find you when the war's over, hero," she whispered into Kino's ear.

As the car finished her set, the traveler teased, "_try_ not to terrorize the Chois tomorrow night, 'kay?"

"Kino," Christine sounded hurt. "They're children."

* * *

**_No matter where I go..._**

**_-I'll always be a foreigner._**

* * *

Kino quietly returned to her campsite, and Hermes.

"Tickets," she waved the slips of paper for her friend to see. "We're on a train outta here first thing tomorrow morning. We'll be taking a series of 'em until we're well clear."

"Where to?"

Kino smiled. "I have no idea. Hopefully somewhere quiet, so my arm can heal. And somewhere I'm _not_ famous - being in the public eye doesn't suit me. You heard the speech?"

"I did. It was good. You keep surprising me, I know that wasn't easy for you, but you handle fame better than you think. I hope you don't have any illusions about its effect?"

"'Course not. But I had to try."

"Uhm. It was worth doing. And I think it will make more of a difference than if you'd simply joined up as another soldier."

Kino grunted her agreement_. I feel good,_ she reflected. _It'll feel even better to be gone from here, not to be worrying all the time. And I finally found the right answer to the challenge the "renewah" presented._

She pulled a pen and paper from her bag.

"Shouldn't you get to bed?"

"Got a letter to write first."

"A letter? Kino, who do you have to write to?"

* * *

_Dear Princess Celestia,_

_ I don't know if this will reach you. I'm writing you from a place you would find distressing, a world of strife and disharmony. But I have taught what I learned in your realm, that only the Elements of Harmony can overcome Discord. I hope more here will pay attention, because "together, there's nothing we could not do, no battle we could not win."_

_ I have learned that I have friends - more and better than I realized! Sadly perhaps, my friendship must be a privilege for only a few, those forgiving enough to stick with me, and extraordinary enough to see me for who I am. For that handful, I'm resolved to be as good a friend as I can be._

_ Your humble student,_

_ Daring Do._

* * *

"The heck...? Kino, what's the point of writing a letter, and then tossing it into a campfire?"

Hermes' friend answered only with a laugh.

* * *

**_What are _you_ going to do...?_**

* * *

.


End file.
